No possibility of a Fukushima in Texas. No earthquake, no tsunami.
I won't go into the different regulatory framework. If anything, nuclear power plants in the USA are overly safe at great expense. Some of us study these matters.
It's not just the billionaires. The terrorists have poisoned the opinion of ordinary people towards Muslims. Which is what terrorists and their Islamist supporters want: a permanent gulf between the West and Islam, so that Islam would be free of Western influence forever.
Remember in 1974 when "Operation Smiling Buddha" resulted in the Indian military detonation of India's first atom bomb?
The enriched uranium fuel for the bomb was created with Canadian assistance and with heavy water supplied by the United States.
The French government sent a congratulatory telegram and the U.S. took the position that the nuclear test did not violate any international treaty obligations.
Pakistan expressed alarm, having concluded a war with India in 1971.
Today, India has one of the most sophisticated nuclear arsenals in the international community with development of technologically advanced ICBM and SLBM inventories. Additionally, India has developed multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicles (MIRVs) that international regulators have diligently attempted to ban and had been the topic of intense negotiations during the SALT treaty negotiations in the 1970s.
The "nuclear apartheid" argument that has been made as to Iran and Israel respecting U.S. nonproliferation policy applies with equal force as to India - who remains in the process of ongoing development of highly advanced nuclear weapon delivery systems placing their military on par with China, Russia, and America - with little concern being expressed by the U.S. State Department - which focuses inordinate emphasis upon Iran despite IAEA certifications of compliance.
Do we ever hear U.N. Ambassador Haley expressing concern of India's nuclear arsenal?
Spyguy is correct about the light water reactors favored by US companies having inherent design flaws. They are popular internationally because uranium fuel reactors can be used as a cover for developing a nuclear bomb.
Reactors based on thorium fuel cannot be used to make bombs. A thorium Molten Salt Reactor can be designed to fail safe. China and India are presently developing thorium fuel nuclear reactors. Why does the US cede the high road to China and India?
Juan, I agree that solar and wind are the best energy sources, but we still need to provide the base load when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining. Today we use hydroelectric and coal power to provide the base load. A thorium based molten salt reactor is the best long term solution.
+1. There's simply no excuse for this. In addition to acknowledging and ending the racial disparities of the "war on drugs", it should also be acknowledged in the staffing composition and culture of the criminal justice system itself, and last but not least, in our foreign policy and the tortured, often plainly contradictory justifications, on which it is based.
The trick is to harmonize the presentation with the political realities in the US. One can maintain quite a few culturally inherited prejudices without rising to the level of malice, or condoning institutional abuses and exploitations. I think that Most Americans fit that description.
One must present : #1, a common ground , and #2, the possibility for an improvement. That is clearly something we find in the economic justice angle. It is one reason that more people voted for Obama than Clinton. It is the reason Sanders is the most popular national politician today.
I'm afraid that lesson is still, after everything we've seen in the past year, lost on mainstream Democrats.
There is no logical reason under the sun to keep poking at Iran...except that it really sounds good. Most Americans view Iran as another Mideast crackpot world of sand and rocks, inhabited by people wearing bed sheets for gowns. Few people know that Iran is bigger than any country ever invaded by America since...ever? There is a chunk of America that remembers the kidnapping of Americans from the embassy that created a big political stink when America did not know how to resolve the imbroglio.
America---well certainly Congress---is Netanyahu's poodle. Bibi relentlessly wants America to stay focused on Iran, so as to keep the spotlight away from the territorial dog fighting that is going on in the West Bank, accusations of corruption involving King Bibi, etc.
Safest, and most expensive. You can't blame treehuggers for making nuclear so expensive by pushing for so many regulations and then turn around and praise how safe the result is. Especially since we now have two alternatives that haven't had much opportunity to show up in those statistics while their costs have been plummeting.
To summarize, Hinkley Point C, Hinkley Point C, Hinkley Point C.
The people can be brainwashed by the actual news but not by the lack of news as you suggest, and as Mr Cole points out, the media go overboard when a Muslim has targeted a 'Western Country, but has nothing to say about atrocities perpetrated by Muslims against Muslims or horrendous death and destruction by Western country's bombs. Indeed, its only when the perpetrator of death and destruction in chief (currently Assad) commits some heinous alleged war crime that the media gushes tears of feigned anguish and shows pictures of children caught up in the mayhem. The mass of the people watch only main stream news outlets and only a tiny tiny tiny fraction of people like you and me read well informed sites like this one. You may recall the rather comical speech by Donald Rumsfeld where he driveled on about you can't know what you don't know and an unknown is an unknown etc, well something like that.
If things had gone a bit differently, you could easily have had a Fukushima in Texas. They dodged a bullet, this time. Nuclear plants are safe until they aren't and then they are cosmically unsafe. Wind turbines don't have that problem.
Just wondering. At one point, maybe around 2005 or 2007, Friedman appeared on one of the many shows that invite him on (do those jamokes get paid? Much?) and when questioned about his "suck... on... this!" statement, he said, "That doesn't sound like something I would say." The video clip is displayed pretty frequently. Does he still claim it's not something he said?
The legendary Speaker of The House , Tip O'Neill, used to say "all politics are local". A corollary might be "all values are local". No US media outlet would dare make a comparison of the humanitarian hardships in Houston and the hardships in Mosul.
Of course, that makes it much easier for a US president to drop a bomb wherever he so chooses in the "them" world.
The essential element to be mindful of here is the absence of non-governmental civic institutions, and, by extension, a free press, in almost all the Arab nations. In the Arab countries where civic societies and institutions exist, they are invariably co-opted by the ruling dictatorships and their acolytes.
I believe at least 75% of Americans are ... brainwashed by the corrupt news & the lack of real honest news they get from the TV and radio, including PBS news.
Money corruptly controls America, Americans and their educational complex which excludes wisdom, independent thinking, heart and morality. Emphasis placed on memory, competition and being the best. Having a great memory is not a prerequisit for wisdom, morality and heart.
For over 20 years I've told people that I know and that I meet about juancole.com and tomdispatch.com. Out of about 3,000 individuals, including college/university professors, professionals, common folk and strangers only six indivduals knew of Cole.
End Money's Systemic Corruption and Control
1. Carefully close down the Military Industrial Complex.
2. Carefully close down the Federal Reserve, a private corporation, not in Government Pages of phone books
3. Prohibit multiple millionaires with a family fortune or a family yearly income greater than $2 or $300,000 from holding any elected or appointed public office: federal, state, county and city.
Excuse errors, I'm dyslexic in memory, storage and recall.
The US public's interest in the Rohingya has not been aroused nor would it suit media to rouse it since it wouldn't increase ratings or put on readers. Once US media was indeed a proud source of world news but today it has abrogated that role and become entertainment, providing glib, two dimensional 24/7 low key emotional pornography. But can one blame the media when US leaders have no interest in the fate of persecuted Arab minorities? Tillerson isn't raising these issues, they might become newsworthy if he did. To a large extent this is a US issue, the world's global police. Just taking the Rohingya, look at Le Mondelink to lemonde.fr or Die Weltlink to welt.de or the Swedish Aftonbladetlink to sok.aftonbladet.se One could go on forever.
Rather than delving into the statistics which show that nuclear power plants are the safest form of electricity production per unit energy, I will only point out that the South Texas Project nuclear power plants continued to generate irrespective of the wind speed.
The real point is the fact that the United States of America can not be trusted. Trump is really tops in breaking agreements. Not even the citizens can be sure if health insurance or SS benefits will be honored.
Under Trump the government is the worst. How can anyone trust his administration?
The world keeps ignoring the plight of these poor people. Every time this topic comes up the comment sections are filled with anti Muslim comments, and some ironically using the Israel model (pointing out the Palestinians are the aggressors and Israel the victim), trying to convince us that the 87% of Buddhists (in power) are the victims of violence by the 4% of Muslims. Suu Kyi has turned out to be a huge disappointment, pretending to be all out for democracy while under house arrest, and now doing NOTHING for the minority in the country. Why was she given that Nobel peace prize again? Turkey apparently has offered Bangladesh the finances to take these poor people in, but that is yet to be seen. This inhumane treatment of these helpless people has been totally ignored, and even the US keeps sending the criminal government aid, which simply enables them. Meanwhile the women and children and brutally attacked and killed.
The leaders of Germany, Britain, and France must speak out about the futility of another conflagration in the MIddle East and tell America that it will not be a party to such a foolhardy action. Americans must wake up and see where this is heading and take action before it is too late.
Mainstream Whites will never, ever, ever admit that mass imprisonment of Blacks was meant to reduce their voting numbers, just as conservative Whites will never admit that voter ID laws were meant to do the same.
While we talk about Trump voters voting against their rational self-interest, you could say the same of voters in general who support the current prison-industrial complex.
Yet it is illuminating to consider why in both cases, they don't see it that way. Our system holds the country back and wastes great amounts of human potential, but the voters are convinced that more liberal policies could make them the next victim of the mythical army of Black predators. It's the all-domestic version of the boogeyman of the Next Terrorist Attack. We pick and choose which statistical risks to throw our tax dollars at; why this one and not global warming?
Because nothing triggers our fear response like the belief that a malign human being is out there targeting us as opposed to some impersonal force like nature or soulless corporate behemoths that just crushes us without caring. That's why, I think, police throw ridiculous amounts of manpower hunting down serial killers who can't be deterred, at the cost of finding ways to deter everyday violence that's faceless because it's really all of us potentially shooting someone we know in a fit of anger. Once racist propaganda puts the villain's face on Blacks or Moslems, we literally can't rest until it is hanging from a noose, statistical probability be damned.
Remember that two of the most powerful lobbies in Washington - Israel and Saudi-Arabia - have teamed up for their own reasons to try to get the US into a war with Iran with no regard for US interests.
Except that Iran could be as bad (or worse) as attacking NK or Afghanistan.
Iran has been expecting a USA attack for over 35 years and has built up the military infrastructure to not only make the USA regret any attack within a few days but to probably DEFEAT the USA and send it home with severe long term damages.
Note that on its own, Iran can severely damage the USA, but if China and/or Russia decide to help, then the USA is toast.
Attacking Iran is a BIG (repeat BIG) mistake that the USA will regret for generations.
Unfortunately . . .
the current USA administration is not well regarded for having any intelligence only anger and hubris, so the USA will probably blindly attack Iran and get its head handed to it on a gold platter engraved with a stylish "T."
Some important points in the essay need to be emphasized:
- All the nuclear treaties prevent inspection of military sites that are not declared nuclear sites. This was put into the agreements by the USA and the USA is required to conform to this agreement. Even declared nuclear sites have very stringent protocols for inspection and it is often by external inspection (via satellites, etc.) rather than on-site physical inspection. Iran has gone far beyond the requirements that the USA has met by allowing physical on-site inspection of all their declared nuclear sites.
- All nuclear facilities emit trace identifiers which can be detected by sensitive instruments external to the site and Parchan has NOT been found to emit any of the trace identifiers, even during the previous on-site inspections.
Basically this is a provocation by the USA and everyone on earth sees it as a provocation by the USA. The USA will get limited support.
I disagree that any nation will learn or this has any implications for the US. The American administration has been reneging on WTO agreements, NAFTA, NATO treaty etc for years and there is no consequence whatsoever. Everyone still pretends working with the US is a good thing. I might say only China has been a wily fox t counter signing on to WTO and ignoring its obligation, but otherwise nary a nation is willing to stand up and point out US promises are not worth the paper it's written on.
Think back to Reagan's promises to Soviet union not to expand NATO.
Agreements between sovereign states has ALWAYS been based entirely on trust (or the exchange of children via marriage) as there is no additional enforcement mechanism, such as neutral courts to force both sides to conform to an agreement. The UN tries to moderate bad behavior by member states but if the USA wants to be a total jerk, the UN has no way to stop it.
In the past, the USA had reasonably sane administrations that walked away from only a few agreements. The USA has walked away from agreements since the first day of the USA, but most were minor and later resolved, usually peacefully.
Now the USA has an administration that does not understand that walking away from MAJOR agreements damages the ability to get any agreements in the future and damages the credibility of the USA to get other nations to go along with the USA position.
With Iran, the USA is rapidly painting itself into a very dangerous and unsustainable corner where the USA will lose all credibility.
Due to past USA behavior and the erosion of the good will left over from WW2, the USA no longer has the ability to just do what it wants and have the rest of the world just go along. The rest of the world now has the ability of thriving on its own and no longer needs to curry USA favor, so will no longer just "go along" with the USA.
Unfortunately far too many people in the USA are living in the early post-WW2 era and do not understand the USA can no longer take unilateral actions.
While the USA can walk away from its part of the Iran agreement, the rest of the world will probably NOT go along with the USA and will definitely NOT allow the USA to attack Iran.
Note that just the USA walking away from the agreement will have no effect on Iran and the rest of the world since the USA has no legal trade with Iran (Iran does buy USA products through third parties all the time).
While the "light water" nuclear reactors used in the USA can NEVER be safe because the design is extremely flawed, there are nuclear reactor designs that are designed to fail safe, not fail catastrophically.
I do not know why the USA has done so little research on safe reactor designs and focusing only on trying to compensate for the massive flaws in the"light water" design.
Note that "light water" reactors were originally designed for ships and submarines which are surrounded by cooling water, so a catastrophic failure is automatically managed when the ship or submarine sinks. Land based reactors have no possible backup.
Non-US researchers have designed small scale test nuclear reactors that fail in a safe manner, but no one has made on on a commercial scale yet.
Nuclear may still be a viable alternative if (big IF) safer nuclear reactor designs can be implemented. Especially ones that do not create so much nuclear waste.
A mix of non-carbon energy systems , including nuclear is probably the optimal mix for the future since relying on a single source, like we do now with carbon energy, is a not a good idea.
Friedman makes the Arabs sound as bad as ... everyone else!
Consider Europe in it's transition from monarchy to democracy. Two hundred years of war. That transition included two wars that enveloped the whole world.
Consider sub-Saharan Africa. It's transition to democracy is not yet done. South Africa seems to be decently democratic. Other countries seem to be on their way. It is a bumpy road and each country has its own story.
South America had quite a bumpy ride going from colonialism to democracy.
American history has had some bumpy patches. Is having a bumpy patch?
The Arab world has some nasty problems that must be solved. Monarchs and dictators, often western backed, must be reformed or replaced. The worlds last colony must be dealt with. Foreign drawn borders will likely be redrawn. All of these problems are exacerbated by the curse of oil: they can't deal with their problems without outside interference.
A pity for Iran. They've been so willing to engage constructively with the West and now Trump is out to derail that. So much for Trump being "pro-military"; wanting to send the US troops to yet another bloody, unjustified war.
Wrong day of the week. When Paris was about to fall in June, 1940, tons of documents were burned by government officials - a time sarcastically referred to as "Ash Wednesday."
This is what the gun and badge do to a personality. The feeling of omnipotence is irresistible when the full power and majesty of the state is pinned to your chest and the power of life and death rides on your belt.
Did the arresting cop follow the Reichspräsident's recommendation to rough her up / not protect the nurse's head when placing her in his car?
Ignorance is bliss, the question of access is discussed in “JCPOA” link to state.gov
Christian fundamentalist Zionism is the culprit, it makes us numb to violence and repression and explain the indifference to global warming, rapture will fix all and in fact, the more money, the closer to god.
It’s plainly rational for Israel to try and maintain its regional hegemony in the Middle East by defanging Iran, as such would allow it to act practically without any restraint in the region. Indeed, it's likely that Iran and Hezbollah have caused Israel to slightly moderate its aggression, and thus they have enhanced regional stability.
It's always worth noting that while Iran has been openly threatened with aggression by the US and Israel, the US Pentagon has formally acknowledged the defensive nature of Iran's foreign policy. Consider the following portion of a Pentagon report: "Iran’s military doctrine is defensive. It is designed to deter an attack, survive an initial strike, retaliate against an aggressor, and force a diplomatic solution to hostilities while avoiding any concessions that challenge its core interests." link to detailedpoliticalquizzes.wordpress.com
with Iran as a viable strong country in the middle east the U.S.A. is unhappy. They want to control the agenda and Iran, being a soverign nation has told them to "fly a kite". Trump and his ilk need a war to take people's minds of the problems within their own country and to make money. Nothing makes money like a war in some one else's back yard. Trump and his ilk having perhaps realized they can't get N. Korea to attack and being protected by china, they need another "victim". they decided Iran would work given the less than happy thoughts regarding the holding of American hostages.
I'm not a big fan of Iran, but lets get real. the country is a lot better than China, Russia, Phillipines, etc. Living conditions are better there than in a lot of African countries, and gang invested countries in central America.
Iran has problems with their religious zealots and their attitude towards women, but then Trump and his ilk suffer the same problems. Can't say one is worse than the other. they just do it differently. The U.S.A has a million African Americans in jails, Iran jails "political" prisoners and women who don't follow the game rules. who is worse?
once this is all over or most of it, watch for the americans to abandon the Kurds and the others to start the assault on them, lead of course by Turkey.
In my opinion, Erdogan is simply solidifying his position so that when it comes time to invade and eliminate the Kurds he won't have much in the way of opposition in Turkey.
Turkey may at some point be booted out of NATO. the joined and had hoped to join the E.U. but in my opinion they will now not be admitted given the dictatorship and other problems. Erdogan is setting himself up as a Muslim strong man to take advantage of the vacumn left by Saddam Hussein. Erdogan acts like a thug and is good company for a vacation with Netanyahu, Trump, Assaid, and Putin. Might as well let the Presidents of China and the Phillipines go along.
Thank you for posting this video. We see here what we have seen since the rise of private property several thousand years ago; greater concentrations of wealth always have a huge advantage in brainwashing and constructing social practices over lesser concentrations of wealth. Like tiny clusters of cancer cells in the body politic, they will always infect and impose their rigged norms on their lessers. This happens whether under agrarian peonage, industrialization, or the modern consumer economy dominated by advertising and its attendant manipulation of emotions to sell us things we don't really need.
I don't think the world in general is moving towards justice. The global investor class has learned what we could call "the American game", the alliance between the most extreme plutocrats and those bigots willing to identify with them so as to restore the caste pyramids of their fantasized past. The centralization of past fascism is skipped as media hypnosis and armies of little Hitlers online take over as enforcers. This makes the investor class very happy to play along.
People don't learn; they get left in the dust by more advanced people, whom they finally copy. The world will continue on this course until a nation that champions equality and prospers without an oligarchy eclipses the current empires.
If Oklahomans are willing to deform themselves to live with unnatural earthquakes in the name of their unsustainable way of life, Texans must surely rise to the challenge to do the same. We will not be beaten by Oklahomans in anything, even greed and stupidity.
I wonder if Trump has realised that this 'Global Warming' thing isn't a Chinese plot after this. Or maybe he now thinks the Chinese have invented a weather weapon to secretly make war on the US?
You are just repeating a silly piece of propaganda by the Israelis and their echo chambers. Iran was not obliged to open Parchin because Iran has been under continuous inspection and supervision from the moment that they extract uranium, to the time when it is enriched, etc. However, in order to put an end to the extensive propaganda by the Israelis and their US backers they allowed a further inspection just prior to finalizing the nuclear agreement, although the site had been inspected twice before. Ask anyone who is an expert in nuclear issues and they will tell you that if there had been any illicit activities in Parchin they would not have been able to sanitize it because traces of it would remain for decades. Yukio Amano personally inspected Parchin and his experts certified that there had not been any illicit activities. US experts, including Secretary Ernest Moniz, who is a nuclear scientist, would not have been fooled by Iranian tricks. Those lies have to be put to rest.
Trump and the insulting US ambassador to the UN want to find an excuse and they are not interested in facts. A friend of mine Mark Fitzpatrick who was the non-proliferation official at the State Department and who is now the executive director of IISS-Americas and who took a hard line on Iran in a number of conferences that we both attended prior to the nuclear deal has said that access debates are not a cause for alarm. link to iiss.org
Only yesterday the IAEA has again confirmed that Iran is adhering to the nuclear deal. link to washingtonpost.com
Those who wish to attack Iran should find another excuse, because this one is wearing thin.
Why would it be surprising that Netanyahu is comfortable with anti-semitism among Trump supporters? His state only stands to gain from it if his own countrymen reconsider plans to emigrate to the US and American Jews become nervous in their own country.
No, Nikki Haley is not from India; but both of her parents are from India. Nothing at all wrong with that, but Juan Cole's point about Haley's "beating up Iran" for a nuclear bomb it doesn't have is still a good point, I think.
Regardless either as a Sikh or a Methodist, the latter which helps her fit in as a Republican representative, the same way it did for Bobby Jindal, also a convert, she's not really going to care much for Iran or it's Islamic views for her politics.
She's ideologically as American mainstream as most Republicans as far as hating on Iran and other US policies are concerned.
"There is nothing going on at the Parchin military base ..."
Well, the suspect site within the Parchin military base had been sanitized years ago. The alleged illicit activities there had been in the early 2000s.
When has the US ever cared what the IAEA had to say, unless their findings fit hand-in-glove with the official American narrative? When Mohamed el Baradei found no nuclear activity in Iraq, contrary to what Bush/Cheney were saying, he was pulled out of Iraq. Worth emphasising: He was pulled out of Iraq at Bush's insistence, not pushed out by Saddam.
Trump appears desperate to have a war all of his own. The hand-me-down conflict in Afghanistan, which has limited prospects for success, just won't do. A nuclear / missile armed North Korea is a dangerous hornets' nest to kick, so why not the traditional whipping boy, Iran?
The implications of the US deliberately blowing up the Iran nuclear deal go beyond Iran. Why would any state grant concessions in a deal if the US can simply cancel its own obligations?
Humans need personal energy (food) and community energy (fire, electricity , etc.) to thrive.
The Chinese leadership KNOW that over 50% of the population, at a MINIMUM, MUST have sufficient personal and community energy for the leadership to stay in power. Right now, carbon energy is used for community energy, BUT the leadership is well aware that carbon energy has huge costs that can NEVER go down, only up. As carbon energy costs increase, the number of humans in China that can afford carbon energy will go down, threatening the leadership.
To stay in power, the leadership MUST find another energy source. One that is "permanent," inexpensive and not controlled by any possible opponent.
Solar, wind (derived from solar) and hydro electric (derived from solar) are all inexpensive and long term after an initial investment. The only "problem" with solar and wind is night usage, but Tesla has invented a solution which the Chinese are rapidly implementing - Powerwall (stationary Li-ion storage systems).
By making a investment in solar, wind and powerwall production capacity, China is able to ensure that a majority of their population will have the community energy to thrive.
In the process, China has developed several industries that will provide export wealth for many years to come, especially after the USA discovers that it is non-competitive because it uses high cost carbon energy. At that point in time, Americans will also discover that they are so far behind on solar, wind and storage technology and carbon energy is draining so much wealth from their economy, they have no choice but to buy from China than build their own.
Americans are "famous" for the lack of long term investment because the people in leadership today will not profit immediately. Whereas Chinese leadership has a 5000 year old cultural imperative to invest for the long term.
FYI - China will surpass their 2030 goal by a huge margin. It is not unimaginable for China to be completely off carbon energy by 2035 instead of the projected 2050.
US military forces are illegally in Syria, as they were never invited into the country by the Syrian government, the internationally recognized government of a sovereign nation. That said, it has never stopped the US from illegal invasions, bombings and wars; Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan.
Anything less than a million USA soldiers is a WORTHLESS waste of USA wealth and humans.
Per the USA military counter insurgency manual (fm3-24), To stabilize the Afghan population, the USA would need a MINIMUM of 700,000 troops (roughly a million when movement into/out of the combat zone is factored in). Anything less and we can NOT be successful. The USA military KNOWS this very well.
BUT . . .
Of course, the USA congress would have a fit of panic over their jobs if trump actually asked for a million troops for Afghanistan, which is why the current "reality show" troops are still on the ground.
Basically, no one in USA political leadership has the courage to just declare "Victory" and leave and let Iran and Pakistan deal with Afghanistan which they both want to be a stable buffer between their two countries.
I sell stuff on eBay because it gives me access to far more potential buyers than selling on Craigslist or via my local newspaper which only cover a small geographic area. Buyers are not concentrated in a small geographic areas, but sparsely distributed all over the USA and globe.
The number of racist, hateful people has probably not increased by a huge number, BUT before the Internet, they were isolated and only able to connect with a small number of like-minded people within a small geographic area.
BUT. . .
Just as I was able to build a global community to discuss esoteric technical issues via ARPAnet then later the public internet, people scattered all over the globe can now easily connect about thousands of unique shared interests.
In this respect, the hateful are no different in that they now have a "safe" space to congregate and share their hate. Given that these type of people contribute NOTHING to the advancement and stability of humans, the best thing society could do is return them to geographic isolation.
These type of corrosive people are no benefit to society and their speech should be suppressed. Note that much of the globe does just that.
All the "good targets" are long gone and the "insurgents" have long ago learned how to function well even while bombs fall on dirt piles.
The "insurgents" do not need infrastructure to defeat the US military, so there is no infrastructure to bomb other than civilian houses. This of course just makes the locals hate the US military even more.
At this point in time, USA "air power" is worthless and just wastes jet fuel and bombs. Apparently the USA military has learned NOTHING from Vietnam where the NVA readily defeated the south and USA soldiers while the USA dropped more tons of bombs than during all of WW2 on a smaller area (note that we are still finding un-exploded WW2 bombs).
After basic infrastructure is bombed, air power becomes more worthless by the day. After the initial invasion, with millions of USA troops on the ground, the only somewhat effective aerial weapons are attack helicopters and A-10 Warthogs. The fighter jets, as was clearly demonstrated in Vietnam, are worthless - they fly far too high and far too fast to target individual fighters and after a short time there are no "big" targets to destroy.
This is entirely a PR stunt for the TV cameras and serves no useful combat purpose. I suspect that the pilots constantly blow up the same "cinematic" spot because there is nothing left to blow up.
Keep in mind that Afghanistan did not have all that much infrastructure to blow up in the first place, so there is none left.
More "fake news" to continue the Afghanistan "reality show" to keep trump from having to admit defeat. If trump really cared about America (he does NOT), he would pull every American out of Afghanistan and turn it over to Iran and Pakistan who want a stable country between them.
“The Obama Administration did not shoot straight on how many people they sent to Afghanistan, which added cost to the mission and made it harder to succeed,” Thornberry said.
Texas media is too busy engaging in self-congratulation of how many Texans used their private resources to help victims. This is posed in the same tone as American Exceptionalism. Texas' mainstream always puts out the obnoxious subtext that they're better than other Americans, with the implication that they've done better keeping Whites, males and Christians on top and others in their place, which somehow thus causes the greater charity and "can-do spirit. Thus any aid by Texan Moslems does not fit the narrative and drops into the memory hole.
Or, he knew that he was headed for an arrest for many, many financial improprieties around the world. By being the nominee and thus "leader" of the GOP, he could claim any attempt by Hillary Clinton's Dept. of Justice to arrest him was a political prosecution, and delay justice long enough to die in bed like Stalin. Note that his people were admitting to the media in October that they had big plans in case he lost, using the data they collected on his followers and preparing to create a "Trump News Network" aided by disgraced Fox News mastermind Roger Ailes. This permanent faction could be used to add to that pressure to keep him from prosecution.
Tea Party and alt-right protesters good.
Anti-Tea Party and antifascist counter-protesters bad.
Occupy and anti-pipeline protesters bad.
How have the police treated right-wing counter-protesters?
Think I see a pattern here.
If China is casting around for the magic bullet to finally make solar cheaper than coal, the floating solar array may be the key. We know a real estate bubble already exists in Chinese cities. As that spreads to suburban regions, the land costs for solar arrays could become a problem - but the existence of air pollution from coal becomes an even bigger problem. The bourgeois buying and moving to that land will have more political power than the farmers who have to suffer from the coal-fired stations being built there now to feed urban demand. If enough fresh water can be found to position these arrays, they will have better typhoon protection than offshore wind could.
Reporting 8,400 in A'stan,
when there are known to be more than 11,000,
if you include uniformed military who are on TDY and Mercenaries ?
I call that a rounding error.
You want transparency in numbers of combatants fighting our wars ?
The actual number in Syria might be triple what the Pentagon reports.
Who knows ?
Maybe its more than triple.
.
The displacement of Syrian Arab and Turkmen families by Kurds attempting to establish a land bridge between Kurdish enclaves of Kobane (200 km East of Iskenderun) and of Afrin 150 km to the west is being facilitated by US airpower.
While the genesis of the Free Syrian Army is in dispute,
now that the USA has stopped supporting them,
they have gravitated to the side of these people we are now displacing.
The Turkish government is supporting them now.
This "ethnic cleansing," if you will, is replacing Arabs and Turkmen along the southern side of Syria's border with Turkiye. Turkiye sees these Kurds that we are bringing in as part of the PKK terrorist enemy.
The US military has over a dozen posts, camps and stations on the Turkish side, and perhaps even more on the Syrian side of this stretch of the border. The YPG Kurds have said that the US military is there for the long haul.
I can't see Turkiye abiding that situation for very long.
.
This is separate from the campaign of "ethnic cleansing" that is replacing Syrian Arab families with Kurds in the area along the Euphrates below (South of) Deir az-Zur.
The USA has decided where the new Kurdish state will extend.
It can truly be said about the Middle East that you can't tell the players with out a scorecard. We have no idea whether the folks whom we are supporting with blood and treasure are really on our side, and what it is that they are actually fighting for, as we seem to know as little about them as we do the creatures of Alpha Centauri.
Yes he is preparing just what title you stated. Israel even setting up and training right now special forces to attack ground targets and Iranian personnel inside Syria, commando style raids, to avoid flying in and facing S400's and Putin's response.
“Our true adversary is the occupation side and the real issue of our country is the presence of foreign occupiers … Talking about minor matters and side notes during the presence of occupation does not have any benefit.”
Sounds like the demands of the North Vietnamese! This
should be the basis of negotiations now just as it was
then. We should work up some face saving "peace with
honor" type slogan and sign a withdrawal deal with the
Taliban. That is the only politically passable end to
this disaster that seems workable.
Perhaps these White Supremacists who seem to have a lot of time on their hands to demonstrate, thug, cruise around in pickup trucks or on big kiddy motorscooters can get on down to Southeast Texas and help them rebuild after Harvey?
Since their leaders endeavor throwing out all those who actually do the dirty heavy lifting in Texas.
Dumb••• Texas tried to enact a law preventing "Sanctuary Cities" in Texas the day Harvey started the downpour.
Fortunately, a Federal judge may have saved those hundreds of thousands needing repairs or rebuilding from the mickey-mouse workmanship guaranteed with unemployed White Supremacists.
As usual, Dr. Cole, you do an excellent job of untangling for us the many strands in this conflict.
On the other hand, this complexity explains why it was a catastrophic mistake for the US to ever become involved in the Middle East, going back (at least) to 1953 in Iran.
Is it just me or do I see that Police give the AltRight a free pass during these "protests" and concentrate their efforts on suppressing the counter-protesters ?
The potential for false-flag attacks in Syria, or attacks designed to look like false-flag attacks, has probably never been greater, nor the incentive to do so. Desperate groups will do anything to ignite a US involvement if they think they can benefit from it.
Both sides? The only ones planning mayhem and arming themselves to the teeth were the right wingers. The only ones that committed violence and murder were the right wingers. Calling the citizens of Charlottesville and the almost universally peaceful counter protesters 'the other side' is patently ridiculous and completely unsupported by the facts including the article above.
Sarcasm aside, these people r ...[highly unlikely to] experience shame or resign. They're right where they want to b. I, too, am angry, frustrated and yes, ashamed, of what my country is becoming.
While all criticism of Trump is obviously justified, I am beginning to suspect that his unpreparedness and general ineptitude in the role of President derives from the fact that he never thought, or even wanted, to win. It seems to me that for entirely business purposes what he wanted was to be, and later to have been, a candidate, to benefit from the pre-election publicity and bask in the post-election stature of having been a presidential candidate. There's a character in Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana who still has a certain respect for having once been such a candidate. This would explain a great deal. The whole thing was a mistake, a gamble against impossible odds that he supposed not to win but did. Doesn't such a scenario join more dots than any other?
The real problem now is the double team of Israel and Saudi-Arabia. Each has its own reasons to push for someone like the US to go to war with Iran. In Washington they are two of the most formidable lobbies and can move the craven US Congress to act on their behalf contrary to US interests.
I'm very worried that Trump will not take anything like the damage G. W. Bush took from Katrina. Firstly, expectations are already rock-bottom for this regime. Secondly, the public seems more willing to buy into his rah-rah "you'll all have to help each other" spiel despite the fortune we pay in taxes for the governmental functions that primarily benefit billionaires.
Thankfully, water was not trapped the way it was in New Orleans 12 years ago, which caused the high death toll and abetted the politically suspicious behavior of the authorities in not letting urban homeowners back on to their properties for months, causing them to fall into irreparable ruin. White suburbanites, heavily Republican, with the right friends in Washington should face fewer barriers. Any other kind of Texan, well, who cares about them?
The line of attack needs to focus on Trump's recent executive order overturning tough new standards for Federal construction and reconstruction that would have made it harder to keep using tax money to reconstruct exurban homes built in high-risk areas. You can see why a real estate speculator like Trump wants developers free to build anywhere with Federal backup. This is the rare moment when suburban Americans have to ask the question about real estate that they still refuse to ask about fossil fuels: can we really trust ourselves with unlimited development? Destroy that trust, and you destroy what passes for Trump's economic compact with his followers.
These conservatives aren't going to learn until they are constantly hit with natural disasters over and over. Until then, their opinions aren't going to change. And even then, if there are natural disasters over and over, they will see it as more evidence of God returning and the end in near. So we are pretty much screwed. We might as well let the disasters happen. Scientists should shut up. Let Rome burn. Scientists are wasting their time talking to the American public.
Thank you for the subtle but true insight in your comment. I say there are two kinds of people in the country, with a few exceptions. Those who deny climate change so they can continue to rob carbon from the earth without guilt. And those who believe what the science tells us, but have a million reasons why they have to continue a high carbon lifestyle. Many of my colleagues moan about the horrors to come with climate disruption, but do not hesitate to fly from California to Paris for a nice two week vacation. We are all to blame.
So, let's see? An on-going flooding event on every continent. An iceberg the size of a state leaving Antartica, the first tanker makes the North Passage without an ice-breaker. Not good.
Trump's stupid policies and these particular henchmen will make things MUCH WORSE. For example:
• Under three (3) terms of unable-to-count-to-three Gov. Rick Perry , Texas grabs the worst polluting State in the U.S. title (Recognized carcinogens to air.) by a huge margin.
• CEO Tillerson has sold his soul to the Gods of Fossil Fuels and is now a demigod himself with major ties to Russia, a country which benefits from climate-change.
Naomi Klein on the corporate media not providing context that Houston was made worse by climate disruption.
There is a lesson in that for Houston. The window for providing meaningful context and drawing important conclusions is short. We can’t afford to blow it.
Talking honestly about what is fueling this era of serial disasters — even while they’re playing out in real time — isn’t disrespectful to the people on the front lines.
In fact, it is the only way to truly honor their losses, and our last hope for preventing a future littered with countless more victims.
The end of the article has a video of her discussing Trump's Shock Doctrine.
****
She published an article on this in January 2017 which recounted the role Mike Pence played after Katrina
That’s relevant because of the central, if little-recalled role played by the man who is now the U.S. vice president, Mike Pence. At the time Katrina hit New Orleans, Pence was chairman of the powerful and highly ideological Republican Study Committee. On September 13, 2005 — just 14 days after the levees were breached and with parts of New Orleans still underwater — the RSC convened a fateful meeting at the offices of the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.
Under Pence’s leadership, the group came up with a list of “Pro-Free-Market Ideas for Responding to Hurricane Katrina and High Gas Prices” — 32 policies in all, each one straight out of the disaster capitalism playbook.
To get a sense of how the Trump administration will respond to its first crises, it’s worth reading the list in full (and noting Pence’s name right at the bottom).
What stands out in the package of pseudo “relief” policies is the commitment to wage all-out war on labor standards and on the public sphere — which is ironic because the failure of public infrastructure is what turned Katrina into a human catastrophe. Also notable is the determination to use any opportunity to strengthen the hand of the oil and gas industry.
Probably not. There have been lots of migrants along the east coast of India, south of Kolkata, displaced by storms and rising waters. The same is true in Bengladesh.
This doesn't mean the Gulf Coast situation isn't very serious indeed.
We should have returned Texas to Mexico, from whom it was stolen more than 170 years ago. Now it's too late.
What we need to do is set up a special fund for Climate Change Deniers and most Republicans. The fund will pay all expenses to relocate Republicans and Climate Change Deniers to East Texas, southern Florida and coastal Louisiana. In fact we might consider building a "beautiful" wall (something like Hadrian's wall) to keep them penned in.
That will be voluntary of course. On the other hand Nazis would be dumped on the other side of the New Hadrian Wall. Conversely, those who wish to flee those flood-ravaged parts can do so. Maybe we can set up a one-for-one exchange program.
Doing this will vastly improve the political situation in the rest of the United States and leave us all to experience satisfying levels of Schadenfreude.
When adults, not petulant children, occupy seats of power they DO resign when they bring shame upon their institutions. The key word is "shame."
Neither Trump nor any of the climate criminals close to him are susceptible to shame since they all appear incapable of admitting error. They will only quit when staying on puts their wealth or their freedom at risk.
The Pope claims infallibility only in matters of doctrine and morals. These truly exceptional guys believe they are inerrant in all things.
As The Man With No Conscience stood in front of the crowd in Houston wearing his $40 USA hat along side his wife wearing stiletto heels and her $40 FLOTUS hat (Both available on Trump's website) his first comment was to brag about the size of the crowd who came to greet him.
A comment that had to be so reassuring to the flood victims and first responders.
Climate change to Trump is the thermostat on the wall.
No possibility of a Fukushima in Texas. No earthquake, no tsunami.
I won't go into the different regulatory framework. If anything, nuclear power plants in the USA are overly safe at great expense. Some of us study these matters.
It's not just the billionaires. The terrorists have poisoned the opinion of ordinary people towards Muslims. Which is what terrorists and their Islamist supporters want: a permanent gulf between the West and Islam, so that Islam would be free of Western influence forever.
Remember in 1974 when "Operation Smiling Buddha" resulted in the Indian military detonation of India's first atom bomb?
The enriched uranium fuel for the bomb was created with Canadian assistance and with heavy water supplied by the United States.
The French government sent a congratulatory telegram and the U.S. took the position that the nuclear test did not violate any international treaty obligations.
Pakistan expressed alarm, having concluded a war with India in 1971.
Today, India has one of the most sophisticated nuclear arsenals in the international community with development of technologically advanced ICBM and SLBM inventories. Additionally, India has developed multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicles (MIRVs) that international regulators have diligently attempted to ban and had been the topic of intense negotiations during the SALT treaty negotiations in the 1970s.
The "nuclear apartheid" argument that has been made as to Iran and Israel respecting U.S. nonproliferation policy applies with equal force as to India - who remains in the process of ongoing development of highly advanced nuclear weapon delivery systems placing their military on par with China, Russia, and America - with little concern being expressed by the U.S. State Department - which focuses inordinate emphasis upon Iran despite IAEA certifications of compliance.
Do we ever hear U.N. Ambassador Haley expressing concern of India's nuclear arsenal?
Follow ups on the cop assaulting the nurse will be appreciated!
FEEMA Chief sacked for low crowd numbers.
Another Holocaust. Too horrible.There are no words. The world seems to be moving towards self destruction.
Potus adds to the despair.
He looks like Little FInger...
Spyguy is correct about the light water reactors favored by US companies having inherent design flaws. They are popular internationally because uranium fuel reactors can be used as a cover for developing a nuclear bomb.
Reactors based on thorium fuel cannot be used to make bombs. A thorium Molten Salt Reactor can be designed to fail safe. China and India are presently developing thorium fuel nuclear reactors. Why does the US cede the high road to China and India?
Juan, I agree that solar and wind are the best energy sources, but we still need to provide the base load when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining. Today we use hydroelectric and coal power to provide the base load. A thorium based molten salt reactor is the best long term solution.
+1. There's simply no excuse for this. In addition to acknowledging and ending the racial disparities of the "war on drugs", it should also be acknowledged in the staffing composition and culture of the criminal justice system itself, and last but not least, in our foreign policy and the tortured, often plainly contradictory justifications, on which it is based.
The trick is to harmonize the presentation with the political realities in the US. One can maintain quite a few culturally inherited prejudices without rising to the level of malice, or condoning institutional abuses and exploitations. I think that Most Americans fit that description.
One must present : #1, a common ground , and #2, the possibility for an improvement. That is clearly something we find in the economic justice angle. It is one reason that more people voted for Obama than Clinton. It is the reason Sanders is the most popular national politician today.
I'm afraid that lesson is still, after everything we've seen in the past year, lost on mainstream Democrats.
There is no logical reason under the sun to keep poking at Iran...except that it really sounds good. Most Americans view Iran as another Mideast crackpot world of sand and rocks, inhabited by people wearing bed sheets for gowns. Few people know that Iran is bigger than any country ever invaded by America since...ever? There is a chunk of America that remembers the kidnapping of Americans from the embassy that created a big political stink when America did not know how to resolve the imbroglio.
America---well certainly Congress---is Netanyahu's poodle. Bibi relentlessly wants America to stay focused on Iran, so as to keep the spotlight away from the territorial dog fighting that is going on in the West Bank, accusations of corruption involving King Bibi, etc.
Safest, and most expensive. You can't blame treehuggers for making nuclear so expensive by pushing for so many regulations and then turn around and praise how safe the result is. Especially since we now have two alternatives that haven't had much opportunity to show up in those statistics while their costs have been plummeting.
To summarize, Hinkley Point C, Hinkley Point C, Hinkley Point C.
The people can be brainwashed by the actual news but not by the lack of news as you suggest, and as Mr Cole points out, the media go overboard when a Muslim has targeted a 'Western Country, but has nothing to say about atrocities perpetrated by Muslims against Muslims or horrendous death and destruction by Western country's bombs. Indeed, its only when the perpetrator of death and destruction in chief (currently Assad) commits some heinous alleged war crime that the media gushes tears of feigned anguish and shows pictures of children caught up in the mayhem. The mass of the people watch only main stream news outlets and only a tiny tiny tiny fraction of people like you and me read well informed sites like this one. You may recall the rather comical speech by Donald Rumsfeld where he driveled on about you can't know what you don't know and an unknown is an unknown etc, well something like that.
If things had gone a bit differently, you could easily have had a Fukushima in Texas. They dodged a bullet, this time. Nuclear plants are safe until they aren't and then they are cosmically unsafe. Wind turbines don't have that problem.
Just wondering. At one point, maybe around 2005 or 2007, Friedman appeared on one of the many shows that invite him on (do those jamokes get paid? Much?) and when questioned about his "suck... on... this!" statement, he said, "That doesn't sound like something I would say." The video clip is displayed pretty frequently. Does he still claim it's not something he said?
The legendary Speaker of The House , Tip O'Neill, used to say "all politics are local". A corollary might be "all values are local". No US media outlet would dare make a comparison of the humanitarian hardships in Houston and the hardships in Mosul.
Of course, that makes it much easier for a US president to drop a bomb wherever he so chooses in the "them" world.
The essential element to be mindful of here is the absence of non-governmental civic institutions, and, by extension, a free press, in almost all the Arab nations. In the Arab countries where civic societies and institutions exist, they are invariably co-opted by the ruling dictatorships and their acolytes.
I believe at least 75% of Americans are ... brainwashed by the corrupt news & the lack of real honest news they get from the TV and radio, including PBS news.
Money corruptly controls America, Americans and their educational complex which excludes wisdom, independent thinking, heart and morality. Emphasis placed on memory, competition and being the best. Having a great memory is not a prerequisit for wisdom, morality and heart.
For over 20 years I've told people that I know and that I meet about juancole.com and tomdispatch.com. Out of about 3,000 individuals, including college/university professors, professionals, common folk and strangers only six indivduals knew of Cole.
End Money's Systemic Corruption and Control
1. Carefully close down the Military Industrial Complex.
2. Carefully close down the Federal Reserve, a private corporation, not in Government Pages of phone books
3. Prohibit multiple millionaires with a family fortune or a family yearly income greater than $2 or $300,000 from holding any elected or appointed public office: federal, state, county and city.
Excuse errors, I'm dyslexic in memory, storage and recall.
The US public's interest in the Rohingya has not been aroused nor would it suit media to rouse it since it wouldn't increase ratings or put on readers. Once US media was indeed a proud source of world news but today it has abrogated that role and become entertainment, providing glib, two dimensional 24/7 low key emotional pornography. But can one blame the media when US leaders have no interest in the fate of persecuted Arab minorities? Tillerson isn't raising these issues, they might become newsworthy if he did. To a large extent this is a US issue, the world's global police. Just taking the Rohingya, look at Le Monde link to lemonde.fr or Die Welt link to welt.de or the Swedish Aftonbladet link to sok.aftonbladet.se One could go on forever.
Mattis, although one of the saner voices in the administration, also has an unhealthy fixation on Iran.
Actually, it was Louis XV. And since he was King of France, doesn't this make it a "French saying"?
Antoinetta III
Rather than delving into the statistics which show that nuclear power plants are the safest form of electricity production per unit energy, I will only point out that the South Texas Project nuclear power plants continued to generate irrespective of the wind speed.
The real point is the fact that the United States of America can not be trusted. Trump is really tops in breaking agreements. Not even the citizens can be sure if health insurance or SS benefits will be honored.
Under Trump the government is the worst. How can anyone trust his administration?
The world keeps ignoring the plight of these poor people. Every time this topic comes up the comment sections are filled with anti Muslim comments, and some ironically using the Israel model (pointing out the Palestinians are the aggressors and Israel the victim), trying to convince us that the 87% of Buddhists (in power) are the victims of violence by the 4% of Muslims. Suu Kyi has turned out to be a huge disappointment, pretending to be all out for democracy while under house arrest, and now doing NOTHING for the minority in the country. Why was she given that Nobel peace prize again? Turkey apparently has offered Bangladesh the finances to take these poor people in, but that is yet to be seen. This inhumane treatment of these helpless people has been totally ignored, and even the US keeps sending the criminal government aid, which simply enables them. Meanwhile the women and children and brutally attacked and killed.
The leaders of Germany, Britain, and France must speak out about the futility of another conflagration in the MIddle East and tell America that it will not be a party to such a foolhardy action. Americans must wake up and see where this is heading and take action before it is too late.
Mainstream Whites will never, ever, ever admit that mass imprisonment of Blacks was meant to reduce their voting numbers, just as conservative Whites will never admit that voter ID laws were meant to do the same.
While we talk about Trump voters voting against their rational self-interest, you could say the same of voters in general who support the current prison-industrial complex.
Yet it is illuminating to consider why in both cases, they don't see it that way. Our system holds the country back and wastes great amounts of human potential, but the voters are convinced that more liberal policies could make them the next victim of the mythical army of Black predators. It's the all-domestic version of the boogeyman of the Next Terrorist Attack. We pick and choose which statistical risks to throw our tax dollars at; why this one and not global warming?
Because nothing triggers our fear response like the belief that a malign human being is out there targeting us as opposed to some impersonal force like nature or soulless corporate behemoths that just crushes us without caring. That's why, I think, police throw ridiculous amounts of manpower hunting down serial killers who can't be deterred, at the cost of finding ways to deter everyday violence that's faceless because it's really all of us potentially shooting someone we know in a fit of anger. Once racist propaganda puts the villain's face on Blacks or Moslems, we literally can't rest until it is hanging from a noose, statistical probability be damned.
"Apres moi le deluge" is not a "French saying". It is quote from Louis XIV or one of his mistresses.
Remember that two of the most powerful lobbies in Washington - Israel and Saudi-Arabia - have teamed up for their own reasons to try to get the US into a war with Iran with no regard for US interests.
Except that Iran could be as bad (or worse) as attacking NK or Afghanistan.
Iran has been expecting a USA attack for over 35 years and has built up the military infrastructure to not only make the USA regret any attack within a few days but to probably DEFEAT the USA and send it home with severe long term damages.
Note that on its own, Iran can severely damage the USA, but if China and/or Russia decide to help, then the USA is toast.
Attacking Iran is a BIG (repeat BIG) mistake that the USA will regret for generations.
Unfortunately . . .
the current USA administration is not well regarded for having any intelligence only anger and hubris, so the USA will probably blindly attack Iran and get its head handed to it on a gold platter engraved with a stylish "T."
Some important points in the essay need to be emphasized:
- All the nuclear treaties prevent inspection of military sites that are not declared nuclear sites. This was put into the agreements by the USA and the USA is required to conform to this agreement. Even declared nuclear sites have very stringent protocols for inspection and it is often by external inspection (via satellites, etc.) rather than on-site physical inspection. Iran has gone far beyond the requirements that the USA has met by allowing physical on-site inspection of all their declared nuclear sites.
- All nuclear facilities emit trace identifiers which can be detected by sensitive instruments external to the site and Parchan has NOT been found to emit any of the trace identifiers, even during the previous on-site inspections.
Basically this is a provocation by the USA and everyone on earth sees it as a provocation by the USA. The USA will get limited support.
Red Line Agreement of 1928. Look it up.
I disagree that any nation will learn or this has any implications for the US. The American administration has been reneging on WTO agreements, NAFTA, NATO treaty etc for years and there is no consequence whatsoever. Everyone still pretends working with the US is a good thing. I might say only China has been a wily fox t counter signing on to WTO and ignoring its obligation, but otherwise nary a nation is willing to stand up and point out US promises are not worth the paper it's written on.
Think back to Reagan's promises to Soviet union not to expand NATO.
Agreements between sovereign states has ALWAYS been based entirely on trust (or the exchange of children via marriage) as there is no additional enforcement mechanism, such as neutral courts to force both sides to conform to an agreement. The UN tries to moderate bad behavior by member states but if the USA wants to be a total jerk, the UN has no way to stop it.
In the past, the USA had reasonably sane administrations that walked away from only a few agreements. The USA has walked away from agreements since the first day of the USA, but most were minor and later resolved, usually peacefully.
Now the USA has an administration that does not understand that walking away from MAJOR agreements damages the ability to get any agreements in the future and damages the credibility of the USA to get other nations to go along with the USA position.
With Iran, the USA is rapidly painting itself into a very dangerous and unsustainable corner where the USA will lose all credibility.
Due to past USA behavior and the erosion of the good will left over from WW2, the USA no longer has the ability to just do what it wants and have the rest of the world just go along. The rest of the world now has the ability of thriving on its own and no longer needs to curry USA favor, so will no longer just "go along" with the USA.
Unfortunately far too many people in the USA are living in the early post-WW2 era and do not understand the USA can no longer take unilateral actions.
While the USA can walk away from its part of the Iran agreement, the rest of the world will probably NOT go along with the USA and will definitely NOT allow the USA to attack Iran.
Note that just the USA walking away from the agreement will have no effect on Iran and the rest of the world since the USA has no legal trade with Iran (Iran does buy USA products through third parties all the time).
While the "light water" nuclear reactors used in the USA can NEVER be safe because the design is extremely flawed, there are nuclear reactor designs that are designed to fail safe, not fail catastrophically.
I do not know why the USA has done so little research on safe reactor designs and focusing only on trying to compensate for the massive flaws in the"light water" design.
Note that "light water" reactors were originally designed for ships and submarines which are surrounded by cooling water, so a catastrophic failure is automatically managed when the ship or submarine sinks. Land based reactors have no possible backup.
Non-US researchers have designed small scale test nuclear reactors that fail in a safe manner, but no one has made on on a commercial scale yet.
Nuclear may still be a viable alternative if (big IF) safer nuclear reactor designs can be implemented. Especially ones that do not create so much nuclear waste.
A mix of non-carbon energy systems , including nuclear is probably the optimal mix for the future since relying on a single source, like we do now with carbon energy, is a not a good idea.
When building a major U.S. city 50 feet above sea-level on a flood plain on Hurricane Coast - bad things can happen.
Houston became a populous area for a single reason - fossil fuel.
Which makes Harvey and the aftermath, the most IRONIC storm in U.S. history.
So far.
Q - "Where Do 'Alt-Right' Groups Get Their Money?"
A - From the lucky rich or wealthy-by-daddy defectives and indirectly from Russia.
Friedman makes the Arabs sound as bad as ... everyone else!
Consider Europe in it's transition from monarchy to democracy. Two hundred years of war. That transition included two wars that enveloped the whole world.
Consider sub-Saharan Africa. It's transition to democracy is not yet done. South Africa seems to be decently democratic. Other countries seem to be on their way. It is a bumpy road and each country has its own story.
South America had quite a bumpy ride going from colonialism to democracy.
American history has had some bumpy patches. Is having a bumpy patch?
The Arab world has some nasty problems that must be solved. Monarchs and dictators, often western backed, must be reformed or replaced. The worlds last colony must be dealt with. Foreign drawn borders will likely be redrawn. All of these problems are exacerbated by the curse of oil: they can't deal with their problems without outside interference.
A pity for Iran. They've been so willing to engage constructively with the West and now Trump is out to derail that. So much for Trump being "pro-military"; wanting to send the US troops to yet another bloody, unjustified war.
Wrong day of the week. When Paris was about to fall in June, 1940, tons of documents were burned by government officials - a time sarcastically referred to as "Ash Wednesday."
Keep up the good work Prof. Cole!
This is what the gun and badge do to a personality. The feeling of omnipotence is irresistible when the full power and majesty of the state is pinned to your chest and the power of life and death rides on your belt.
Did the arresting cop follow the Reichspräsident's recommendation to rough her up / not protect the nurse's head when placing her in his car?
Ignorance is bliss, the question of access is discussed in “JCPOA”
link to state.gov
Christian fundamentalist Zionism is the culprit, it makes us numb to violence and repression and explain the indifference to global warming, rapture will fix all and in fact, the more money, the closer to god.
It’s plainly rational for Israel to try and maintain its regional hegemony in the Middle East by defanging Iran, as such would allow it to act practically without any restraint in the region. Indeed, it's likely that Iran and Hezbollah have caused Israel to slightly moderate its aggression, and thus they have enhanced regional stability.
It's always worth noting that while Iran has been openly threatened with aggression by the US and Israel, the US Pentagon has formally acknowledged the defensive nature of Iran's foreign policy. Consider the following portion of a Pentagon report: "Iran’s military doctrine is defensive. It is designed to deter an attack, survive an initial strike, retaliate against an aggressor, and force a diplomatic solution to hostilities while avoiding any concessions that challenge its core interests."
link to detailedpoliticalquizzes.wordpress.com
with Iran as a viable strong country in the middle east the U.S.A. is unhappy. They want to control the agenda and Iran, being a soverign nation has told them to "fly a kite". Trump and his ilk need a war to take people's minds of the problems within their own country and to make money. Nothing makes money like a war in some one else's back yard. Trump and his ilk having perhaps realized they can't get N. Korea to attack and being protected by china, they need another "victim". they decided Iran would work given the less than happy thoughts regarding the holding of American hostages.
I'm not a big fan of Iran, but lets get real. the country is a lot better than China, Russia, Phillipines, etc. Living conditions are better there than in a lot of African countries, and gang invested countries in central America.
Iran has problems with their religious zealots and their attitude towards women, but then Trump and his ilk suffer the same problems. Can't say one is worse than the other. they just do it differently. The U.S.A has a million African Americans in jails, Iran jails "political" prisoners and women who don't follow the game rules. who is worse?
once this is all over or most of it, watch for the americans to abandon the Kurds and the others to start the assault on them, lead of course by Turkey.
In my opinion, Erdogan is simply solidifying his position so that when it comes time to invade and eliminate the Kurds he won't have much in the way of opposition in Turkey.
Turkey may at some point be booted out of NATO. the joined and had hoped to join the E.U. but in my opinion they will now not be admitted given the dictatorship and other problems. Erdogan is setting himself up as a Muslim strong man to take advantage of the vacumn left by Saddam Hussein. Erdogan acts like a thug and is good company for a vacation with Netanyahu, Trump, Assaid, and Putin. Might as well let the Presidents of China and the Phillipines go along.
Thank you for posting this video. We see here what we have seen since the rise of private property several thousand years ago; greater concentrations of wealth always have a huge advantage in brainwashing and constructing social practices over lesser concentrations of wealth. Like tiny clusters of cancer cells in the body politic, they will always infect and impose their rigged norms on their lessers. This happens whether under agrarian peonage, industrialization, or the modern consumer economy dominated by advertising and its attendant manipulation of emotions to sell us things we don't really need.
A display of human compassion!
Ought be a lesson to us all.
I don't think the world in general is moving towards justice. The global investor class has learned what we could call "the American game", the alliance between the most extreme plutocrats and those bigots willing to identify with them so as to restore the caste pyramids of their fantasized past. The centralization of past fascism is skipped as media hypnosis and armies of little Hitlers online take over as enforcers. This makes the investor class very happy to play along.
People don't learn; they get left in the dust by more advanced people, whom they finally copy. The world will continue on this course until a nation that champions equality and prospers without an oligarchy eclipses the current empires.
If Oklahomans are willing to deform themselves to live with unnatural earthquakes in the name of their unsustainable way of life, Texans must surely rise to the challenge to do the same. We will not be beaten by Oklahomans in anything, even greed and stupidity.
I wonder if Trump has realised that this 'Global Warming' thing isn't a Chinese plot after this. Or maybe he now thinks the Chinese have invented a weather weapon to secretly make war on the US?
You are just repeating a silly piece of propaganda by the Israelis and their echo chambers. Iran was not obliged to open Parchin because Iran has been under continuous inspection and supervision from the moment that they extract uranium, to the time when it is enriched, etc. However, in order to put an end to the extensive propaganda by the Israelis and their US backers they allowed a further inspection just prior to finalizing the nuclear agreement, although the site had been inspected twice before. Ask anyone who is an expert in nuclear issues and they will tell you that if there had been any illicit activities in Parchin they would not have been able to sanitize it because traces of it would remain for decades. Yukio Amano personally inspected Parchin and his experts certified that there had not been any illicit activities. US experts, including Secretary Ernest Moniz, who is a nuclear scientist, would not have been fooled by Iranian tricks. Those lies have to be put to rest.
Trump and the insulting US ambassador to the UN want to find an excuse and they are not interested in facts. A friend of mine Mark Fitzpatrick who was the non-proliferation official at the State Department and who is now the executive director of IISS-Americas and who took a hard line on Iran in a number of conferences that we both attended prior to the nuclear deal has said that access debates are not a cause for alarm.
link to iiss.org
Only yesterday the IAEA has again confirmed that Iran is adhering to the nuclear deal. link to washingtonpost.com
Those who wish to attack Iran should find another excuse, because this one is wearing thin.
Why would it be surprising that Netanyahu is comfortable with anti-semitism among Trump supporters? His state only stands to gain from it if his own countrymen reconsider plans to emigrate to the US and American Jews become nervous in their own country.
No, Nikki Haley is not from India; but both of her parents are from India. Nothing at all wrong with that, but Juan Cole's point about Haley's "beating up Iran" for a nuclear bomb it doesn't have is still a good point, I think.
Not sure why Haley's Indian heritage matters.
Regardless either as a Sikh or a Methodist, the latter which helps her fit in as a Republican representative, the same way it did for Bobby Jindal, also a convert, she's not really going to care much for Iran or it's Islamic views for her politics.
She's ideologically as American mainstream as most Republicans as far as hating on Iran and other US policies are concerned.
Shared.
Nikki Haley is not "from India"
"There is nothing going on at the Parchin military base ..."
Well, the suspect site within the Parchin military base had been sanitized years ago. The alleged illicit activities there had been in the early 2000s.
When has the US ever cared what the IAEA had to say, unless their findings fit hand-in-glove with the official American narrative? When Mohamed el Baradei found no nuclear activity in Iraq, contrary to what Bush/Cheney were saying, he was pulled out of Iraq. Worth emphasising: He was pulled out of Iraq at Bush's insistence, not pushed out by Saddam.
Trump appears desperate to have a war all of his own. The hand-me-down conflict in Afghanistan, which has limited prospects for success, just won't do. A nuclear / missile armed North Korea is a dangerous hornets' nest to kick, so why not the traditional whipping boy, Iran?
The implications of the US deliberately blowing up the Iran nuclear deal go beyond Iran. Why would any state grant concessions in a deal if the US can simply cancel its own obligations?
This should NOT be surprising.
Humans need personal energy (food) and community energy (fire, electricity , etc.) to thrive.
The Chinese leadership KNOW that over 50% of the population, at a MINIMUM, MUST have sufficient personal and community energy for the leadership to stay in power. Right now, carbon energy is used for community energy, BUT the leadership is well aware that carbon energy has huge costs that can NEVER go down, only up. As carbon energy costs increase, the number of humans in China that can afford carbon energy will go down, threatening the leadership.
To stay in power, the leadership MUST find another energy source. One that is "permanent," inexpensive and not controlled by any possible opponent.
Solar, wind (derived from solar) and hydro electric (derived from solar) are all inexpensive and long term after an initial investment. The only "problem" with solar and wind is night usage, but Tesla has invented a solution which the Chinese are rapidly implementing - Powerwall (stationary Li-ion storage systems).
By making a investment in solar, wind and powerwall production capacity, China is able to ensure that a majority of their population will have the community energy to thrive.
In the process, China has developed several industries that will provide export wealth for many years to come, especially after the USA discovers that it is non-competitive because it uses high cost carbon energy. At that point in time, Americans will also discover that they are so far behind on solar, wind and storage technology and carbon energy is draining so much wealth from their economy, they have no choice but to buy from China than build their own.
Americans are "famous" for the lack of long term investment because the people in leadership today will not profit immediately. Whereas Chinese leadership has a 5000 year old cultural imperative to invest for the long term.
FYI - China will surpass their 2030 goal by a huge margin. It is not unimaginable for China to be completely off carbon energy by 2035 instead of the projected 2050.
Culture really can determine the future.
US military forces are illegally in Syria, as they were never invited into the country by the Syrian government, the internationally recognized government of a sovereign nation. That said, it has never stopped the US from illegal invasions, bombings and wars; Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan.
Anything less than a million USA soldiers is a WORTHLESS waste of USA wealth and humans.
Per the USA military counter insurgency manual (fm3-24), To stabilize the Afghan population, the USA would need a MINIMUM of 700,000 troops (roughly a million when movement into/out of the combat zone is factored in). Anything less and we can NOT be successful. The USA military KNOWS this very well.
BUT . . .
Of course, the USA congress would have a fit of panic over their jobs if trump actually asked for a million troops for Afghanistan, which is why the current "reality show" troops are still on the ground.
Basically, no one in USA political leadership has the courage to just declare "Victory" and leave and let Iran and Pakistan deal with Afghanistan which they both want to be a stable buffer between their two countries.
Resources ;
link to fas.org
link to ssi.armywarcollege.edu
link to podesta.com
Yes . . .
I sell stuff on eBay because it gives me access to far more potential buyers than selling on Craigslist or via my local newspaper which only cover a small geographic area. Buyers are not concentrated in a small geographic areas, but sparsely distributed all over the USA and globe.
The number of racist, hateful people has probably not increased by a huge number, BUT before the Internet, they were isolated and only able to connect with a small number of like-minded people within a small geographic area.
BUT. . .
Just as I was able to build a global community to discuss esoteric technical issues via ARPAnet then later the public internet, people scattered all over the globe can now easily connect about thousands of unique shared interests.
In this respect, the hateful are no different in that they now have a "safe" space to congregate and share their hate. Given that these type of people contribute NOTHING to the advancement and stability of humans, the best thing society could do is return them to geographic isolation.
These type of corrosive people are no benefit to society and their speech should be suppressed. Note that much of the globe does just that.
All the "good targets" are long gone and the "insurgents" have long ago learned how to function well even while bombs fall on dirt piles.
The "insurgents" do not need infrastructure to defeat the US military, so there is no infrastructure to bomb other than civilian houses. This of course just makes the locals hate the US military even more.
At this point in time, USA "air power" is worthless and just wastes jet fuel and bombs. Apparently the USA military has learned NOTHING from Vietnam where the NVA readily defeated the south and USA soldiers while the USA dropped more tons of bombs than during all of WW2 on a smaller area (note that we are still finding un-exploded WW2 bombs).
After basic infrastructure is bombed, air power becomes more worthless by the day. After the initial invasion, with millions of USA troops on the ground, the only somewhat effective aerial weapons are attack helicopters and A-10 Warthogs. The fighter jets, as was clearly demonstrated in Vietnam, are worthless - they fly far too high and far too fast to target individual fighters and after a short time there are no "big" targets to destroy.
This is entirely a PR stunt for the TV cameras and serves no useful combat purpose. I suspect that the pilots constantly blow up the same "cinematic" spot because there is nothing left to blow up.
Keep in mind that Afghanistan did not have all that much infrastructure to blow up in the first place, so there is none left.
More "fake news" to continue the Afghanistan "reality show" to keep trump from having to admit defeat. If trump really cared about America (he does NOT), he would pull every American out of Afghanistan and turn it over to Iran and Pakistan who want a stable country between them.
This is all about trump's ego.
“The Obama Administration did not shoot straight on how many people they sent to Afghanistan, which added cost to the mission and made it harder to succeed,” Thornberry said.
What ?
How do you spell "Big Muddy""?
Texas media is too busy engaging in self-congratulation of how many Texans used their private resources to help victims. This is posed in the same tone as American Exceptionalism. Texas' mainstream always puts out the obnoxious subtext that they're better than other Americans, with the implication that they've done better keeping Whites, males and Christians on top and others in their place, which somehow thus causes the greater charity and "can-do spirit. Thus any aid by Texan Moslems does not fit the narrative and drops into the memory hole.
Or, he knew that he was headed for an arrest for many, many financial improprieties around the world. By being the nominee and thus "leader" of the GOP, he could claim any attempt by Hillary Clinton's Dept. of Justice to arrest him was a political prosecution, and delay justice long enough to die in bed like Stalin. Note that his people were admitting to the media in October that they had big plans in case he lost, using the data they collected on his followers and preparing to create a "Trump News Network" aided by disgraced Fox News mastermind Roger Ailes. This permanent faction could be used to add to that pressure to keep him from prosecution.
Tea Party and alt-right protesters good.
Anti-Tea Party and antifascist counter-protesters bad.
Occupy and anti-pipeline protesters bad.
How have the police treated right-wing counter-protesters?
Think I see a pattern here.
If China is casting around for the magic bullet to finally make solar cheaper than coal, the floating solar array may be the key. We know a real estate bubble already exists in Chinese cities. As that spreads to suburban regions, the land costs for solar arrays could become a problem - but the existence of air pollution from coal becomes an even bigger problem. The bourgeois buying and moving to that land will have more political power than the farmers who have to suffer from the coal-fired stations being built there now to feed urban demand. If enough fresh water can be found to position these arrays, they will have better typhoon protection than offshore wind could.
What a mess. Good to know the US seems to be doing something right (left) in Syria.
Reporting 8,400 in A'stan,
when there are known to be more than 11,000,
if you include uniformed military who are on TDY and Mercenaries ?
I call that a rounding error.
You want transparency in numbers of combatants fighting our wars ?
The actual number in Syria might be triple what the Pentagon reports.
Who knows ?
Maybe its more than triple.
.
The displacement of Syrian Arab and Turkmen families by Kurds attempting to establish a land bridge between Kurdish enclaves of Kobane (200 km East of Iskenderun) and of Afrin 150 km to the west is being facilitated by US airpower.
While the genesis of the Free Syrian Army is in dispute,
now that the USA has stopped supporting them,
they have gravitated to the side of these people we are now displacing.
The Turkish government is supporting them now.
This "ethnic cleansing," if you will, is replacing Arabs and Turkmen along the southern side of Syria's border with Turkiye. Turkiye sees these Kurds that we are bringing in as part of the PKK terrorist enemy.
The US military has over a dozen posts, camps and stations on the Turkish side, and perhaps even more on the Syrian side of this stretch of the border. The YPG Kurds have said that the US military is there for the long haul.
I can't see Turkiye abiding that situation for very long.
.
This is separate from the campaign of "ethnic cleansing" that is replacing Syrian Arab families with Kurds in the area along the Euphrates below (South of) Deir az-Zur.
The USA has decided where the new Kurdish state will extend.
It can truly be said about the Middle East that you can't tell the players with out a scorecard. We have no idea whether the folks whom we are supporting with blood and treasure are really on our side, and what it is that they are actually fighting for, as we seem to know as little about them as we do the creatures of Alpha Centauri.
In the current US administration, what is the value of American promises?
Yes he is preparing just what title you stated. Israel even setting up and training right now special forces to attack ground targets and Iranian personnel inside Syria, commando style raids, to avoid flying in and facing S400's and Putin's response.
I would just draw the hat floating in the middle of a semi-submerged community.
“Our true adversary is the occupation side and the real issue of our country is the presence of foreign occupiers … Talking about minor matters and side notes during the presence of occupation does not have any benefit.”
Sounds like the demands of the North Vietnamese! This
should be the basis of negotiations now just as it was
then. We should work up some face saving "peace with
honor" type slogan and sign a withdrawal deal with the
Taliban. That is the only politically passable end to
this disaster that seems workable.
Perhaps these White Supremacists who seem to have a lot of time on their hands to demonstrate, thug, cruise around in pickup trucks or on big kiddy motorscooters can get on down to Southeast Texas and help them rebuild after Harvey?
Since their leaders endeavor throwing out all those who actually do the dirty heavy lifting in Texas.
Dumb••• Texas tried to enact a law preventing "Sanctuary Cities" in Texas the day Harvey started the downpour.
Fortunately, a Federal judge may have saved those hundreds of thousands needing repairs or rebuilding from the mickey-mouse workmanship guaranteed with unemployed White Supremacists.
link to texastribune.org
As usual, Dr. Cole, you do an excellent job of untangling for us the many strands in this conflict.
On the other hand, this complexity explains why it was a catastrophic mistake for the US to ever become involved in the Middle East, going back (at least) to 1953 in Iran.
Is it just me or do I see that Police give the AltRight a free pass during these "protests" and concentrate their efforts on suppressing the counter-protesters ?
You just watch! This is the first step toward imposing shari'a law in Texas.
Seriously, compare that punk con-man Osteen.
Does that include shipping & handling?
"Order now and receive a second hat absolutely free; just pay a separate fee." Does the hustle ever stop with the grifter-in-chief?
The potential for false-flag attacks in Syria, or attacks designed to look like false-flag attacks, has probably never been greater, nor the incentive to do so. Desperate groups will do anything to ignite a US involvement if they think they can benefit from it.
Both sides? The only ones planning mayhem and arming themselves to the teeth were the right wingers. The only ones that committed violence and murder were the right wingers. Calling the citizens of Charlottesville and the almost universally peaceful counter protesters 'the other side' is patently ridiculous and completely unsupported by the facts including the article above.
Well said Juan: a leading-edge response and demand.
Sarcasm aside, these people r ...[highly unlikely to] experience shame or resign. They're right where they want to b. I, too, am angry, frustrated and yes, ashamed, of what my country is becoming.
While all criticism of Trump is obviously justified, I am beginning to suspect that his unpreparedness and general ineptitude in the role of President derives from the fact that he never thought, or even wanted, to win. It seems to me that for entirely business purposes what he wanted was to be, and later to have been, a candidate, to benefit from the pre-election publicity and bask in the post-election stature of having been a presidential candidate. There's a character in Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana who still has a certain respect for having once been such a candidate. This would explain a great deal. The whole thing was a mistake, a gamble against impossible odds that he supposed not to win but did. Doesn't such a scenario join more dots than any other?
Who knew peace in Israel/Palestine could be so hard?
Who knew health care could be so hard?
Who knew Abraham Lincoln was a Republican?
The real problem now is the double team of Israel and Saudi-Arabia. Each has its own reasons to push for someone like the US to go to war with Iran. In Washington they are two of the most formidable lobbies and can move the craven US Congress to act on their behalf contrary to US interests.
I'm very worried that Trump will not take anything like the damage G. W. Bush took from Katrina. Firstly, expectations are already rock-bottom for this regime. Secondly, the public seems more willing to buy into his rah-rah "you'll all have to help each other" spiel despite the fortune we pay in taxes for the governmental functions that primarily benefit billionaires.
Thankfully, water was not trapped the way it was in New Orleans 12 years ago, which caused the high death toll and abetted the politically suspicious behavior of the authorities in not letting urban homeowners back on to their properties for months, causing them to fall into irreparable ruin. White suburbanites, heavily Republican, with the right friends in Washington should face fewer barriers. Any other kind of Texan, well, who cares about them?
The line of attack needs to focus on Trump's recent executive order overturning tough new standards for Federal construction and reconstruction that would have made it harder to keep using tax money to reconstruct exurban homes built in high-risk areas. You can see why a real estate speculator like Trump wants developers free to build anywhere with Federal backup. This is the rare moment when suburban Americans have to ask the question about real estate that they still refuse to ask about fossil fuels: can we really trust ourselves with unlimited development? Destroy that trust, and you destroy what passes for Trump's economic compact with his followers.
These conservatives aren't going to learn until they are constantly hit with natural disasters over and over. Until then, their opinions aren't going to change. And even then, if there are natural disasters over and over, they will see it as more evidence of God returning and the end in near. So we are pretty much screwed. We might as well let the disasters happen. Scientists should shut up. Let Rome burn. Scientists are wasting their time talking to the American public.
Thank you for the subtle but true insight in your comment. I say there are two kinds of people in the country, with a few exceptions. Those who deny climate change so they can continue to rob carbon from the earth without guilt. And those who believe what the science tells us, but have a million reasons why they have to continue a high carbon lifestyle. Many of my colleagues moan about the horrors to come with climate disruption, but do not hesitate to fly from California to Paris for a nice two week vacation. We are all to blame.
So, let's see? An on-going flooding event on every continent. An iceberg the size of a state leaving Antartica, the first tanker makes the North Passage without an ice-breaker. Not good.
Trump's stupid policies and these particular henchmen will make things MUCH WORSE. For example:
• Under three (3) terms of unable-to-count-to-three Gov. Rick Perry , Texas grabs the worst polluting State in the U.S. title (Recognized carcinogens to air.) by a huge margin.
link to scorecard.goodguide.com
Frequent Ozone Alerts in Dallas/Fort Worth. (Ozone is the BS buzzword for CARCINOGEN)
link to sierraclub.org
• CEO Tillerson has sold his soul to the Gods of Fossil Fuels and is now a demigod himself with major ties to Russia, a country which benefits from climate-change.
link to dni.gov
link to bloomberg.com
link to money.cnn.com
• The powers behind Scott Pruitt have managed to snatch the Earthquake Capital of America title away from either California or Alaska.
link to midlandsmgt.com
The Horsemen of the Apocalypse, ride forth as a group, with an angel heralding them, to bring Death, Famine, War, and Conquest unto man.
Yeah, they need to RESIGN.
Naomi Klein on the corporate media not providing context that Houston was made worse by climate disruption.
HARVEY DIDN’T COME OUT OF THE BLUE. NOW IS THE TIME TO TALK ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE.
The end of the article has a video of her discussing Trump's Shock Doctrine.
****
She published an article on this in January 2017 which recounted the role Mike Pence played after Katrina
First climate refugees?
Probably not. There have been lots of migrants along the east coast of India, south of Kolkata, displaced by storms and rising waters. The same is true in Bengladesh.
This doesn't mean the Gulf Coast situation isn't very serious indeed.
Please note the Mississippi River flood of 1927 when speaking of greatest floods.
Houstonians are not alone. Rainfall related disasters are occurring all over the globe.
• Over 1,200 dead in South Asia floods.
link to theguardian.com
link to nytimes.com
• China: Floods and Landslides - Jun 2017 on-going
link to reliefweb.int
• Aug 14, 2017 ... Africa. 'All We See Is Dead Bodies': Sierra Leone Floods and Mudslides kill hundreds.
link to nytimes.com
• More than 1.3 million affected by flooding and landslides in South America in 2017
link to reliefweb.int
• Mud erases a village in Peru.
link to nytimes.com
• New Zealand Floods: State Of Emergency - Jul 22
link to huffingtonpost.com.au
• Tens of thousands of Australians were stranded by floodwaters
link to telegraph.co.uk
• And again - Australia floods: Cyclone Oswald makes large areas of Queensland underwater
link to telegraph.co.uk
There is a very under-reported global flooding event in-progress.
link to straitstimes.com
We should have returned Texas to Mexico, from whom it was stolen more than 170 years ago. Now it's too late.
What we need to do is set up a special fund for Climate Change Deniers and most Republicans. The fund will pay all expenses to relocate Republicans and Climate Change Deniers to East Texas, southern Florida and coastal Louisiana. In fact we might consider building a "beautiful" wall (something like Hadrian's wall) to keep them penned in.
That will be voluntary of course. On the other hand Nazis would be dumped on the other side of the New Hadrian Wall. Conversely, those who wish to flee those flood-ravaged parts can do so. Maybe we can set up a one-for-one exchange program.
Doing this will vastly improve the political situation in the rest of the United States and leave us all to experience satisfying levels of Schadenfreude.
When adults, not petulant children, occupy seats of power they DO resign when they bring shame upon their institutions. The key word is "shame."
Neither Trump nor any of the climate criminals close to him are susceptible to shame since they all appear incapable of admitting error. They will only quit when staying on puts their wealth or their freedom at risk.
The Pope claims infallibility only in matters of doctrine and morals. These truly exceptional guys believe they are inerrant in all things.
As The Man With No Conscience stood in front of the crowd in Houston wearing his $40 USA hat along side his wife wearing stiletto heels and her $40 FLOTUS hat (Both available on Trump's website) his first comment was to brag about the size of the crowd who came to greet him.
A comment that had to be so reassuring to the flood victims and first responders.
Climate change to Trump is the thermostat on the wall.